'Love Death and Socially Problematic Desire'
ISTD Open Close Brief 2023 For this brief, I chose to radically reimagine Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The aim of my reimagining was to challenge the traditional story and to ask the reader, what if Romeo was a girl? Drawing on the troubled queer relationships of literary icons; Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde and Emily Dickinson. The publication explores the key themes of love, death and socially problematic desire within the context of a queer relationship between two women, highlighting the intersection between gender and sexuality and the social complications linked with same sex desire. The publication was created to look like a working playscript and is split into 3 sections: Love, Socially Problematic Desire and Death. As the storyline declines so does the structure and content of the book. The 'Socially Problematic Desire' section is hidden in the middle to represent forbidden love and it features articles surrounding same sex desire, love and death to help further my narrative. I also drew inspiration from Aliciato's Book of Emblems which was a big inspiration for writers of Shakespeare's time and they relate to the themes explored. These tales can be seen throughout the publication and serve as bookmarks in-between acts.